The "Ospedale
degli Innocenti" is more than
an architectural milestone. It
has provided care of infants and
children continuously for more
than five centuries. Beginning
with its sponsorship and through
its services as well as its architecture,
the "Innocenti" represents
the evolving humanistic views of
Florence of the early Renaissance.

The Gallery is arranged in one
of the most famous and important
architectural complexes of the
early Florentine 15th century,
that was commissioned and financed
by the WooI Guild and built by
Filippo Brunelleschi.The refectory,
cloisters, dormitories, infirmary,
nurses, rooms and porticoes were
purposely balanced by Brunelleschi
to create a harmonious and rational
hospital architecture. Later, they
were enlarged and decorated with
frescoes, thus documenting the
on-going activities of the institution
and the favours of the reigning
dynasty of the Medici.

The Gallery has been arranged in the loggia above the cloister and in the former dayroom of the children above the main portico. It consists of fine works that represent only a small section of the rich collections put together Down the centuries by the Hospital through gifts, bequests, loans or works commissioned by the institution itself. Although the most important works of the collection (Della Robbia, Beato Angelico, Vasari, Giambologna), were dispersed in the l9th century, the collection still preserves outstanding panel paintings, detached frescoes, furniture pieces, decorations and a series of precious illuminated manuscripts dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, which are considered some of the finest preserved in Florence. The best paintings include The Adoration of the Magi by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494) made for the Hospital church. Among splendid and rich colours, the painting portrays some historical personalities (merchants of the Guild of Silk and their servants) connected with the life of the Hospital, worshipping the Child.

In
addition to some fine "gold
ground" paintings, the Gallery
also exhibits a Madonna with Child
attributed to the young Botticelli
(1445-1510), still under the influence
of his master Filippo Lippi; one
of the most attractive glazed terracottas
by Luca della Robbia; an altar
piece by Piero di Cosimo (1461/62-1521)
also made for the Hospital's church
and a typical Madonna degli Innocenti
of the school of Granacci (1469-1543),
where the Madonna is seen protecting
the children in front of the Hospital's
portico.

THE BAMBINI OF ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA

When people looked at the building during its early years, they saw 10 blank roundels, concave circular frames set within thespandrels,thespaces created between the arches. Then in 1487, 4 decades after Brunelleschi’s death, the 10 "bambini" by della Robbia were mounted in the roundels. In 1845, 2 additional pairs of "bambini," reproductions of some of the originals, were installed at either end.
Exactly when della Robbia created the "bambini" is obscure, but probably in 1463 - 1466, several years before their installation. Each of the originals is singular. Seven are fully swaddled from thorax to toe, and 2 are depicted with the swaddling clothes still tied but sagging below the waist or knees.
One "bambino," the seventh from the left on the facade, shows the swaddling clothes untied and falling away from the infant. It is the only one with unbound feet. What della Robbia had in mind with this one variation is hard to say. Perhaps the loosened swaddling clothes represent liberation from the constraining stigma of the foundling origins of the "bambino."

Ospedale degli Innocenti
Facade by Brunelleschi

Men's cloister

Women's
cloister

Ospedale
degli Innocenti, loggia left side
On this spot there used to be a rotating drum
into which unwanted babies could be placed
so that they were taken safely indoors without
the parents having to reveal themselves.

The epigraph
says:
"For 4 centuries this was the wheel of the Innocents,
secret refugefrom misery and shame for those to whom
charity never closed its door."
This system was in operation until the hospital's closure in 1875.
The hospital also in this time took care of abandoned children.

Museum's room

Museum's room

These items were pinned to the orphaned children
in the belief that they would help reunite them
with their parents in the future.